Killa Application

1. As I perused the internet in search of a summer job, I came across mindopia.com. Mindopia was first launched in 2008 by Michael Davis who was previously an agent at CAA and a movie producer. Mindopia is essentially a search engine and career database with a social networking component aimed at connecting employers and prospective employees.

For those in the hunt for a job mindopia.com is a valuable tool that can be used to explore and gain insight into new careers. The site offers a number of different forms of media detailing various aspects of the careers it caters to, ranging from Salary Estimators to Podcasts containing advice from industry moguls. Since the site's network is linked to top firms in many industries it also provides an accurate way to gauge opportunity and discover new possibilities within a specific field. As a final benefit to prospective employees, the site offers personal profile pages which enable users to upload their resumes and cover letters to their profile and bookmark their favorite parts of the site.

For employers, Mindopia.com is a convenient place to post job listings, information about their company, and to check out competitors. The site also makes it easy for employers to sift through the resumes of potential job candidates.

Mindopia.com offers a great amount of utility to both the employer and the job seeker by facilitating dialog between the two. The site is a great a way to seriously pursue a job or casually find out about a specific industry. It truly is a tool that is useful to everyone.

2. In my previous post I introduced Mindopia.com, a new and innovative career-search website with a search engine and a social networking component. I have been exploring the site a lot recently, and although I have not found a job, which would be the most powerful way to extract value from the site, I have learned a lot about all the careers listed on the site through the Podcast interviews and other media options.

For example, I recently did some investigating into what it takes to be a sports executive in the NFL, a boyhood fantasy of mine that hasn't died. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the Chris Henry interviews, check this one out. (interview)

So if you are struggling to find a job right now during this recession, or if you are like me and want to satisfy your curiosity about the actual meaning behind fancy job titles and the career paths "successful" people have taken, you should use Mindopia.com. It will provide you with general information about a plethora of career options and help you learn more detailed information about areas that really peak your interest.

3.In the last two posts I raved about mindopia.com; since then though I have discovered a few weaknesses and flaws that you should be aware of, especially since I couldn't find any other reviews of the site.

The biggest problem with Mindopia is that it only provides a selection of generic careers to choose from. If you want to go into real estate or you want to be a lawyer the site can offer you a great place to start your search. If you want to go into a relatively new field or are pursuing a very specific career the site might not have you covered. For example, there is no mention of green jobs on Mindopia.com which is unfortunate because the green job market is the fastest growing job market in this country right now.

As another example, I am interested in Micro-finance(small scale lending in poorer countries to individuals who want to start their own companies--I like to think of it as humanitarian investing- you are giving someone a chance to be self-sufficient and your risk is no more than a thousand dollars at a time) which is also a quickly growing field. Once again, mindopia had nothing to offer in that field.

I have also come across some functionality problems on a couple of the pages. In an attempt to find out more about mindopia I tried to send them an email via the "Contact Us" page. I typed out a paragraph of questions only to find that the email field box was not working and I couldn't enter my address. I thought it was a problem with by browser or my computer, but sure enough, it's a flaw on the page. They also didn't list any other contact information on the page, so many of my questions are still unanswered.

I also struggled with the personal profile page. Like the email field on the "Contact Us" page, a few of the fields on the "Edit Your Profile" page didn't work when I tried to click on them. I also had alot of trouble finding a profile picture to upload that adhered to the dimensions "104x25."

4. Here's my Prezi presentation on Mindopia